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A fresh initiative is spearheading the idea of compensating resource-rich nations for leaving oil reserves untapped, with potentially significant benefits for climate mitigation and the carbon markets.

Japan’s J-Credit certification committee on Friday registered 32 new projects to start earning credits under the scheme, while issuing some 75,000 units to existing programmes.

Exclusive: Actors and musicians condemn ‘harsh deportation’ of Dartford Crossing protester Marcus Decker

Leading actors and musicians including Bob Geldof, Olivia Colman and Emma Thompson are calling on the Home Office to reconsider the “harsh deportation” of a climate activist who is serving one of the longest prison sentences in modern British history for peaceful protest.

Along with the musicians Brian Eno and Jacob Collier, they are among about 600 artists who are urging James Cleverly to withdraw the deportation order issued to Marcus Decker.

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Cyclone downgraded after dense fog hits parts of the US and India while drought affects Philippines and southern Africa

Tropical Cyclone Kirrily made landfall on the coast of Queensland on Thursday night (local time). Kirrily originated as a tropical low over the Coral Sea, and gradually intensified over several days. The tropical cyclone then quickly intensified on Thursday, reaching a category 2 system by 10am AEST, and category 3 by 3pm, producing gusts of 170 km/h (105mph). As Kirrily moved inland five hours later, it left more than 34,000 homes and business without power in Townsville. However, the cyclone was quickly downgraded back to a category 1 by midnight.

Earlier in the week, dense fog developed from Montana all the way south to the Gulf of Mexico, reducing visibility on Tuesday to less than a quarter mile for many. The combination of last week’s arctic blast, followed by the introduction of warmer air from the south this week, allowed water vapour to condense closer to the surface, which is also known as advection fog. Dense fog reappeared on Thursday morning, affecting just under 99 million people from North Dakota across to central Pennsylvania, and as far south as New Orleans.

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A Japanese trading house has teamed up with a Nordic biomaterial solution provider for the sustainable utilisation of woody biomass, targeting emissions reductions from use of forest resources in Indonesia, it announced Friday.

The best of this week’s wildlife photographs from around the world

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Deaths due to wood-burning stoves are comparable to those of ‘black summer’ bushfires, says Australian study

Scientists are starting to count the health cost of heating our homes with wood. One study, in Canberra in Australia, has found that deaths from everyday exposure to smoke from wood burners is comparable with those during the unprecedented “black summer” bushfires of 2019/2020.

Prof Sotiris Vardoulakis, part of the research team and director of the Healthy Environments and Lives (Heal) National Research Network, described winter in the city: “When I take my two boys to play basketball outdoors in winter, or when we walk the dog before dinner, there is always a smell of wood smoke in the air.”

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People encouraged to record sightings of mohican-sporting birds in RSPB’s Big Garden Birdwatch this weekend

The scale of this waxwing winter will be revealed this weekend when people are encouraged to spend an hour recording the birds they see in their gardens, balconies, parks and school grounds.

The spectacular migratory, mohican-sporting birds have been spotted across Britain during the colder weather and will be recorded alongside more familiar sparrows, blackbirds and robins in the RSPB’s annual Big Garden Birdwatch.

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The lag between project inception and receipt of financing in the world’s first internationally transferred mitigation outcomes (ITMOs) - transacted in January from Thailand to Switzerland - is raising questions about the financial additionality of these credits traded under the Paris Agreement's Article 6.2, experts have told Carbon Pulse.

A daily summary of our news plus bite-sized updates from around the world.

Greenfinches, sparrows and starlings have declined the most but other species including goldfinches are thriving.

Atmos and Nomad plan 100 MW, four hour (400 MWh) battery in the wheat-belt area of Western Australia.

The post Atmos plans four-hour big battery in W.A. wheatbelt in further boost to storage appeared first on RenewEconomy.

Washington Carbon Allowance (WCA) prices took a nosedive following verification of a ballot initiative aimed at repealing the state's Climate Commitment Act, while California Carbon Allowance (CCA) prices once again briefly broke to new all-time highs earlier in the week.

Members of the Washington House Environment and Energy Committee advanced a bill intended to facilitate linkage between the state's young cap-and-invest programme and the California-Quebec carbon market on Thursday, while also hearing testimony and debating issues around a proposal to study the inclusion of speculators in allowance auctions.

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Hermit crabs all over the world are using our discarded plastic and other waste in place of their natural shells.

The first vehicle to achieve powered flight on another planet suffers rotor damage three years into tour.

Analysts at a major ratings agency have cut their outlook for EU carbon prices, following other experts in tempering their expectations amid a confluence of bearish factors but differing in their anticipation of a full recovery later this year.

If a colony of flying foxes sets up in your backyard, you might be annoyed – or concerned. But these gentle bats are vital to our forests. Noel D. Preece, Adjunct Asssociate Professor, James Cook University Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.

The US Department of Energy (DOE) announced Thursday the disbursement of awards to 49 projects nationwide geared to reduce industrial greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, as well as additional available funding opportunities to tackle decarbonisation challenges in hard-to-abate industries.